Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, February 8, 2006

Over the objection of Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors passed legislation Tuesday establishing public financing for mayoral elections and limiting parking spaces in new downtown residences, garages and lots.

On the first measure, nine supervisors voted for legislation sponsored by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi that provides public money to partly fund campaigns for mayor. Supporters say the ordinance will make races more competitive, reduce the influence of well-funded donors and encourage more candidates to run for office. Mirkarimi called his legislation a good first step to "ward off the corrosive impact of big money and special interests."

Under the ordinance, about $6 million of public funds would be provided for all qualifying mayoral candidates each four-year election cycle. Participants would be held to a spending cap of $1.375 million, which could be lifted if another candidate who doesn't take public funds spends more than the cap. The proposal is similar to public financing already in place for supervisorial races.

"I don't think I would be sitting here today without the assistance of public funding," said Supervisor Fiona Ma, a Newsom ally who broke with the mayor to vote for the legislation.

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Supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier and Sean Elsbernd, closer allies of Newsom, voted no, arguing that city voters should decide on public funding of mayoral candidates through a ballot measure. That also was the stance Newsom took on Tuesday, writing a letter to the board saying the plan should go to the ballot.

"I feel somewhat uncomfortable with elected officials, and not the voters, approving a program that uses General Fund dollars to fund political campaigns that could otherwise be spent on investments in the community," Newsom wrote. He suggested that current disclosure and ethics laws should be strengthened as part of any expansion of public financing for political campaigns.

While the campaign measure passed with a veto-proof 9-2 margin, the parking ordinance was approved 7-4, making it vulnerable to a mayoral veto, which takes eight votes to override.

Debate before the vote on the parking measure centered on Planning Director Dean Macris, who lent his support to the legislation last year.

Macris was out of town on Tuesday but Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier and Acting Planning Director Larry Badiner read into the record a letter, supposedly written by Macris, outlining doubts about the parking plan.

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who sponsored the legislation, suggested the letter was crafted in part by Newsom's office as an attempt to weaken political support for limits on parking spaces downtown.

"I don't want to put words into Mr. Macris' mouth, but clearly there were aspects of the letter that you read that did not reflect his opinion," Peskin said to Alioto-Pier during a testy exchange.

The legislation would require most off-street parking to be built below ground. Parking spaces in new residential buildings would be limited to three spaces for every four units of new housing.

Opponents say the plan would discourage development downtown and would make parking even harder for commuters who drive to work in the area.

Badiner, after speaking by phone with Macris, said the planning director wanted to postpone a vote on the ordinance for one week, a request Peskin denied.

Supervisors Alioto-Pier, Sean Elsbernd, Ma and Bevan Dufty, also a Newsom ally, voted against the ordinance.

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